


V for Veronica

by eskimita



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: F/M, Logan is very troubled, Mentions of Abortion, Mentions of alcoholism, Mild Consent Issues, Mystery, Stanford Years, Talks of Pregnancy Pacts, This story is not necessarily for Logan lovers, medicinal use of Plan B, slow building romance, very very troubled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:50:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1957347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eskimita/pseuds/eskimita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were very few people Veronica Mars knew she could count on, no matter the situation. Her father, she knew, would be there for her no matter what happened, probably with his gun drawn and his hackles raised. Mac and Wallace were always there for emotional support and to help her toe this side of the law in her investigations. Logan would inevitably call her to bail him out of some sort of trouble, dragging her in with him until she could figure out how to save them both. Then there was Weevil. Weevil could always be counted on to help her when she needed him, in any fashion. He was good for a favor, for a ride, for backup. Weevil was her rock. Even seven hours away, Veronica knew that if she called, he’d come. He’d always come. So when she woke up miles away from campus with nothing but her cell phone and a torn dress, she didn’t even think about it. She just pulled out her phone and called him like she always had, tapping her nails on her leg and squishing herself in a corner. When he picked up, she breathed a sigh of relief, clutching the phone tighter. “Can you come get me?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Once More, for Old Time's Sake

**Author's Note:**

> “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." Cyril Connolly said that, and it is something I strive to write by. My stories are to please me, first and foremost. If they happen to please other people, great. If they don't, so be it. Complaints will be dissected and placed in jars in formaldehyde to be studied at a further date.  
> I own nothing. Veronica Mars does not, has not, and will never belong to me. All references to real people/places/things are just that, references, and are not owned by me. The amount of money made by this piece of fiction is exactly nothing.

Life in Neptune had always been a roller coaster. It was awash with the scandals of the socialites and the secrets of those society would rather forget about. In the middle of it all stood Veronica Mars, not quite an 09er, but not entirely an outsider either. Her life had been so deeply entrenched in the underside of Neptune that she no longer knew where Veronica started and Neptune ended. It had taken something extreme to give Veronica the push that she needed to leave Neptune, but it had finally come in the form of a sex tape.

Leaving Neptune was supposed to be a new start. Veronica had finally decided she’d had enough of the drama, enough of the excitement, enough of everything that made Neptune tick. She’d packed up her car with all of her clothes and everything she could ever possibly need in Palo Alto, kissed her father goodbye, and never once looked back. Other than her father, Neptune had nothing to offer her. Mac and Wallace had practically shoved her out the door, cheerfully calling out that they didn’t want to see her again unless they were in Palo Alto. Logan had thrown a minor fit, claiming that she was running away because of the sex tape, trying to avoid the scandal and hide from the repercussions, leaving him all alone. Wallace had helpfully punched him in the face. Piz had been too angry at her, too hurt by her actions, to really say anything other than an almost too casual ‘see you when I see you’ as she’d said goodbye. It was more than she’d expected from him, considering the circumstances. Weevil had escorted her as far north as Los Angeles, blowing a sarcastic kiss in her direction as he turned his bike around to head back for Neptune. Leaving Neptune had been easy.

The people who mattered understood, supported her decision. Mac had laughed when Veronica had mentioned her doubts, telling her that the likes of Veronica Mars belonged in East Coast courthouses, defending those rich enough to afford her and eating fancy dinners with a new guy every night. Wallace had shrugged and said that he’d always known Veronica would leave Neptune. She’d fought so hard to get away from Neptune, after all. There was no way he expected her to actually stay in the end. Weevil had taken her to Dog Beach, taught her how to ride his bike, and taken her car to Angel’s shop for a tune up. Neither one of them had mentioned the fact that she probably wouldn’t be returning. At the end of the day, he’d pressed his lips against her forehead and whispered, “Now you owe me a favor, chica. Don’t come back here. Don’t you ever come back, V. You get out and you stay out.”

On her own, out of Neptune, Veronica had left everything behind. At Stanford, she wasn’t Veronica Mars: Private Eye or Veronica Mars: Logan Echolls’ girlfriend, or any of the numerous titles she’d had over the years. At Stanford, she was simply Veronica Mars. Nothing was going to change that. Veronica had said goodbye to her life of intrigue and mystery. She’d hung up her camera for good. Now all she wanted was a good education, some legitimate work experience, and a chance to set off on her own. Veronica had absolutely no intentions of ever investigating something again. She was retired. She didn’t do that sort of thing anymore, no matter what anybody else said about it. Veronica Mars was finally normal. The things of the past had been locked away, deep within the recesses of her mind, never to be brought to light again. It was time to grow up, to move beyond Neptune and on to bigger and better places, opportunities to be normal and have a real life.

* * *

 

“Did you hear about the Thetas?” It was a Tuesday morning, time for Abnormal Psychology and the weekly gossip from the two second year freshmen who sat in front of her. “Becky told me that another one was in the clinic last week asking for a pregnancy test. That makes three of them in the past month alone, not to mention the two the month before. People are starting to talk about a pregnancy pact or something weird like that. It’s really the only thing that makes sense, everyone agrees. Why else would five sorority girls be knocked up?”

 _Maybe because they forgot to practice safe sex at a frat party,_ Veronica twisted her pen in between her fingers and observed the girls in front of her. They were the stereotypical dumb blondes, from what she’d seen, here on daddy’s money to get degrees they would never use in real life. She probably shouldn’t be as cynical as she was, but old habits were hard to change. Both of the girls in front of her were giggling at their idea that the Thetas had a pregnancy pact, theorizing on who the baby daddy might be, or if they’d decided on getting the football team or one of the fraternities to knock them up. Old Veronica probably would have jumped on this gossip, convinced that there was more to the story than just a pregnancy pact. Old Veronica would be investigating, even if no one had hired her, just because she couldn’t stand to let sleeping dogs lie. It was a good thing that Old Veronica didn’t exist anymore. Old Veronica would have been in the thick of this as soon as the first rumor reached her ears over a week ago. That was just who she was, how she did things. It had always been that way with her.

New Veronica, sane Veronica, tuned out the gossip of the girls in front of her, dismissing it as the ramblings of airheads who were only taking Abnormal Psychology because they needed one more social science credit and Social Work had already been full. The gossip wasn’t nearly as interesting as the studies that had been done on the effects of adolescent trauma on psychological development, after all. Veronica diligently took notes on the studies the professor was using to demonstrate his point, her mind wandering slightly as she listened. _I wonder what sort of conclusions he’d draw from my experiences as an adolescent. Or anyone from Neptune’s, really. None of us really had what you would call a normal teenage life._

“Environment is crucial to psychological development. It plays a major part in what we become when we’re adolescents.” Professor Kelly leaned heavily on his podium, looking around the room at everyone who was either taking notes or dozing. “The wrong sort of environment could cause all sorts of problems for someone as they reach their adult years.” Veronica barely held in a snort, tapping her pen against her lips as she assessed her professor. Part of her wanted to ask him what her environment growing up told him about her life, but part of her was absolutely terrified to know his theories. It would probably confirm her private theory that Lilly’s death had started her on a downward spiral, psychologically. The last thing she needed was a confirmation of that. “For your research papers, I want each of you to write about an environmental change that could have an effect on an adolescent’s psychological development. Each of you will need at least three studies to use as your examples as well as a theoretical situation that you will present to the class next week. Class is dismissed.”

Veronica went through the motions of packing up her bag, putting away her notebooks and pens as she listened to the chatter around her, her mind picking up on something that most other people probably would have missed. “...heard that she’s suing him for full custody.” “...it’s like they only want the babies.” In light of the conversation she’d overheard earlier, these comments stuck with her, making that part of Veronica that she’d labeled Never Again rattle in a rather obnoxious manner. Her notebook went into her bag with a forceful shove and Veronica threw the bag onto her shoulder as she shoved her way out of the lecture hall and out of the psychology building. _I am not going to investigate this_ , she told herself forcefully. _I’m finally living a normal life. I’m not a private investigator anymore. If something fishy is going on, someone else will figure it out. It isn’t my job._ Even as she told herself all of this, Veronica was starting to think about all the different ways she could get a list of the pregnant members of Theta House.

**  
**

 


	2. Veronica Always Lands on her Feet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter:  
> -Discussion of pregnancy, abortion, and adoption  
> -Brief and vague Logan/Veronica  
> -Use of the Plan B pill

“Please tell me Sachs ran away and the Sheriff’s office is in complete chaos without their only competent deputy so they’ve called my dad in to take over.” It was one of three standard greetings for when Mac called, the one that usually meant ‘I need you to do me a favor.’ It’d been a more common greeting in the early months of her stay in Palo Alto, but she hadn’t used it for a while now, a fact she knew Mac would catch on to almost immediately. As she walked through the quad towards the dorms, Veronica prayed that Mac was in a good mood, otherwise her curiosity would be so much harder to appease.

“Sachs was still doing his civil duty and arresting drunken high school losers last I saw. What do you need, Veronica?” Veronica winced at the underlying tone of exasperation, buried deep beneath humor as it was. She knew that the last thing Mac wanted was to get a phone call asking for help on a case, especially when Mac had been so happy to see her leave the world of investigating behind for something much saner. The visual of Mac flushing her ‘one year clean’ chip popped into her head and she couldn’t help but smile a little. Sleuthing was her addiction. “I thought you said you were done asking me for favors when you figured out the lacrosse coach was taking pictures of cheerleaders in the locker room.”

“I was. I swear I was. After I got him sacked, I swore off ever sticking my nose into anyone’s business ever again. This has nothing to do with a case, scout’s honor.” The fact that she had never been a scout of any kind hardly mattered. Mac knew that, just like she knew that Veronica was working what might end up being a case. Just like Mac knew Veronica was lying, Veronica knew that Mac would help her. It was how they operated. As friends went, Mac was great, but she had never learned to say no when Veronica was going to do something potentially stupid or dangerous. “Hearst has a chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, right?”

The sigh from the other end of the phone was barely audible, but Veronica knew it was there. Part of her hated disappointing her friend like this, but the _Never Again_ part was vibrating with excitement, already planning sting operations and stakeouts. “You want the roster for Stanford’s chapter, don’t you? What did the sorority girls do, Veronica, bleach someone’s hair and tape her to the flag pole? There can’t possibly be a reason you need to know who’s in a sorority this late in the year. Rush week ended forever ago and you aren’t exactly the type for functions that require you wear pink.”

“I look good in pink, thank you very much.” Rolling her eyes, Veronica unlocked her door. “But you’re right.” Veronica tossed her bag onto her desk and collapsed on the couch in her dorm room, sighing heavily. “In the past month, five Thetas have turned up pregnant. Call me crazy, but I don’t really think it’s coincidental for five sorority girls to end up knocked up at the same time. I think they have something planned, but I don’t know what it is.”

“Are you dating a guy that knocked one of them up?” Mac was doing her best to channel Keith Mars’s ‘don’t make me come up there’ voice, and failing spectacularly. “Did someone ask you for help getting out of paying child support, or hiding an abortion from their parents? How are you messed up in this, Veronica?” What have you gotten yourself into this time, went unasked.

“Nothing like that, I swear. It’s for my Abnormal Psychology class, sort of. We’re supposed to do a report on environmental factors in psychological development and you can’t really beat a sorority making a pregnancy pact when it comes to environmental factors and psychological development. I figured that I’d look into the truth behind it, maybe see if any other colleges or any high schools have similar stories, and see what sort of research paper I can come up with from all that.” It was the truth, for the most part. More than anything, Veronica wanted to sate her curiosity about the rumors. Using her paper as an excuse was just convenient, when it came down to it.

“I’ll see what I can do, if you promise me that this isn’t going to be a regular thing. You walked away from this life Veronica. Don’t get dragged back in just because you’re curious about something that’s probably going to end up being stupid.” When it came down to it, her friend’s concern for her did touch Veronica, it really did, even if she thought it was displaced. There was nothing for her to be worried about. Veronica never planned to go back to that life.

“I promise Mac. I’m finishing up a psychology-pre-law double slammer and then I’m out of California and I’ll go hit those East Coast court rooms like you want.” Veronica figured that it wasn’t really a lie. She had her fingers crossed.

* * *

  ****

Three different universities had reports of a rising number of pregnancies within different sororities, five different high schools reported ‘pregnancy pacts’ in their volleyball or soccer teams, and nobody knew why or who the fathers were. Apparently this wasn’t an unusual occurrence like Veronica had thought it was. All over the country, groups of women were making pacts to get pregnant together and raise their children together. As she looked over the list of pregnant Thetas at Stanford, Veronica tapped her nails against the desk, brow furrowed in concentration. “Why on earth would anyone create a pregnancy pact in college?”

“Maybe because the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ is accurate?” Veronica silently cursed herself for talking out loud in the library and looked up, eyes widening in surprise when they met the frustrated gaze of one of the pregnant Thetas. “Are you Veronica Mars? The one who’s been asking questions about what we’ve been doing?” The other girl slid into the chair across from Veronica and raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

“I am Veronica Mars,” the answer was slow, reserved. It had been a while since Veronica had been caught on a case. It had been a while since she’d been on a case. She must be getting rusty if the Thetas had managed to track her down before she’d found all of her answers. “Who am I talking to, exactly?”

The other woman shifted in her seat, her glare relaxing slightly as she leaned forward. “I’m Cassy. I heard the rumors that you’ve been asking about us and I figured that it would just be easier to tell you what’s going on myself. Why exactly are you asking about us?”

 _Curiosity, the thrill of the search, boredom_. Veronica could think of several reasons why she was looking into the pregnancy pact, and none of them had anything to do with her psychology class like she’d told Mac, but this stranger didn’t need to know that Veronica Mars was a junkie of sorts, that she’d lost her will to fight the addiction. She didn’t need to know that the pregnancy pact she had formed with her friends had become a puzzle to Veronica.  Instead, she got Veronica’s patented smile number 31, the You Have Something I Want and I’m Going to Charm it out of You smile. “Professor Kelly assigned a research project for our Abnormal Psychology class on the role environment has in developing who we become. I’d heard the rumors about a pregnancy pact, and I have to say, it intrigued me. As the daughter of a single father, I’ve always wondered what would have been different, if I’d had a different life at home, how I’d be different if I'd only had my mom around.” Veronica set her pen down and leaned forward with genuine interest shining in her eyes. “What made you decide to make a pact? I don’t mean to sound rude, but you’re young, why decide to raise kids now?”

Cassy gave Veronica an indulgent smile that made her feel like a teenager who’d just asked what kind of sex toys were out there before speaking. “A lot of us had similar home lives to yours.” _I highly doubt that, lady._ “My parents didn’t have me until they were in their late thirties. They had no energy to focus on me, so I ended up being raised by a nanny. The other girls all come from divorced families or single parent homes. None of us ever really had the attention from our parents that we wanted.” She rested a hand on her belly and Veronica watched her press down gently. “When we joined the sorority, we started talking about it, how we finally felt like we were getting that sense of family that we never had when we were kids.” She shrugged. “I guess one thing led to another and before long, we’d decided to all have kids together and raise them together, all of the sisters in the house, while we’re young enough to have the energy. We didn’t see the point in looking for men to marry and jobs that would take us all to separate parts of the country. We’re all perfectly capable of caring for children.”

“But what about money? I mean, are you getting child support from the fathers? Are the fathers in the picture at all? How does that work?” Listening to Cassy talk, it almost seemed like the Thetas had decided that their kids only needed mothers, and the fathers were almost obsolete. Frankly, that raised even more questions than the ones that Cassy had already answered for her. “Are you all planning on living in one house, or just staying near each other. Sorry, I’m just not entirely sure how that would work, but I’m sure that you’ve already planned it all out. I mean, you must have, if you’re starting to go through with your plan already.”

“Look, I don’t expect you to understand what we’re doing or why, and I’m not going to sit here and explain everything to you. The fathers aren’t in the picture. We don’t need them, they don’t want kids. They get one night of unprotected fun, we get the babies we want. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.” The way Cassy talked about it so casually, not telling the fathers, it actually made Veronica feel mildly dirty. Even with all her relationship issues in the past, Veronica doubted she could ever keep a pregnancy secret from someone she dated or slept with. “I have a doctor’s appointment to get to, but I figured that I could at least kill some of your questions. If you really want to learn more, we’re throwing a party Friday night. Anyone can come. You should stop by. I’m sure some of the other girls would be willing to answer your questions too.”

Veronica nodded distractedly as she picked up her pen and watched Cassy leave. Even though she had some answers now, she had even more questions than she had started with. The entire idea of a pregnancy pact made no sense to her, and she could almost guarantee that it was going to cause some sort of trouble. Some sort of trouble that she would probably end up in the middle of. Shoving her books into her bag, Veronica left the library, questions racing through her mind. She would have to go to that party on Friday, just to see if she could get clearer answers to her questions.

* * *

 

 _So apparently the way to ensure you get knocked up so you can raise a baby with your sorority sisters is to throw a raging party with plenty of booze and pizza. I guess the Thetas weren’t looking for the best of the best when they decided to bring the next generation into the world._ Veronica pushed her way through the unwashed masses of Stanford’s frat brothers, wondering idly how so many of them had managed to squeeze into the small living spaces of Theta’s downstairs without losing precious room to dance. Further thought had her deciding that some things were better left a mystery, especially if she wanted to leave this party without losing her lunch. The sight of jocks and frat boys making their move on anyone with breasts was literally starting to repulse Veronica. Scenes like this, parties in general, were a big part of the reason Veronica had practically become a recluse when she left Neptune. The level of hormones in the house was overwhelming.

Finally managing to squeeze through to the kitchen, Veronica sighed and leaned back against a wall, watching the chaos that had spread to this room too. After years spent around the 09ers at Neptune High and Hearst, she should be used to the zoo that parties tended to turn in to, but unless she had a reason to be there, she’d done her best to avoid all parties after Shellie Pomeroy’s. It didn’t take a repeat experience for Veronica to learn her lesson. Drunken and hormonal young adults were meant to be avoided like the Plague. Unless, of course, they had information that she wanted. Unfortunately, the Thetas did have information she wanted. Now she just had to figure out which one of the non-pregnant Thetas would be best to question.

Someone pushed past her on his way to the keg that sat on the counter and Veronica’s lip turned up in vague disdain. The pushing was another reason she did her very best to avoid crowded social situations. If she wanted to go home with bruises all over her arms, she’d find a more pleasurable way to acquire them. Being a pinball in an overcrowded game was just about the least pleasurable way to spend her Friday night. After jostling a few Neandertals out of her way, Veronica managed to make it to the other side of the room, near a cluster of Thetas who were all giggling into their Solo cups as they looked around at the men in the room. Throwing up her best Valley Girl smile, Veronica joined them, grabbing an empty cup from somewhere to give her something to do with her hands.

“I’ve gotta say, I wasn’t sure what to expect when Cassy invited me to this party, but this was not it. Plenty of booze, great music, the hottest guys on campus, you are so lucky. I almost wish I’d thought of Pledging at the beginning of the year. This is the life. And with the pact you guys have...” Waving the cup around for emphasis, Veronica tilted her head to the side slightly, capturing what Weevil called her innocent look and playing the other girls with it. “So, do you just like, pick the hottest guy around and take him upstairs or…how exactly does this work? I’m writing a paper on the benefits of a pregnancy pact for the women involved. If you could help me out, maybe answer a few questions, that would be totally awesome.”

The look most of them gave her was best described as the cold shoulder but one, a tall redhead, smiled and tilted her head towards the back door. Sighing with feigned relief and giving the other woman a sheepish smile, Veronica followed her outside, one hand on the strap of her bag and the other cradling her empty cup. Once they were seated in a few of the deck chairs, Veronica looked over at the other woman and pushed her hair behind her ear in a calculated move. “I guess you’ve probably been getting a lot of questions about this, huh?”

Nodding, the redhead set her drink down on the deck and pulled her legs up into the chair. “We have been getting a lot of questions. A lot of people think we’re insane for deciding to get pregnant when we’re still in college, but every one of us would do just about anything for another sister. I’m Evie, by the way.” She shivered lightly in the cooling night air and stared out at the field behind the sorority house. “I’m sure Cassy probably gave her the speech about how we all decided to raise kids together and make our own family. She’s taken quite the romanticized view of everything. I think it’s her way of coping with everything that’s been going on, to be honest. It really isn’t nearly as glamorous as she tries to make it out to be. We didn’t actually set out to make a pregnancy pact. It just sort of happened. When Lara found out she was pregnant, we weren’t going to make her go through that alone. After that, things just happened and the next thing you know, half the house is pregnant.”

“If you didn’t set out to make a pregnancy pact, what did happen?” Veronica used her best soothing voice, leaning closer and setting her bag down on the deck. The reluctance in the other woman’s voice was clear, but Veronica was used to coaxing answers out of people who didn’t want to give them.

“Lara found out she was pregnant about two weeks into Spring semester. She was devastated. The only time she’d had sex recently was right before Christmas break. We’d all gone over to the Kappas party and Lara had hooked up with one of the guys there.” Evie stopped talking and Veronica watched the distant look in her eyes grow. “When Lara went to tell him that she was pregnant, he laughed and said it had worked. Turns out that the bastard had poked holes in the condom because he wanted to see if he could knock someone up. Lara was so angry. She told all of us about what happened and I guess we just decided that we’d all have kids and raise them together.”

“Why didn’t she- I mean, did she think about other options before you decided on this?” Veronica’s attention was caught by a scuffle in the kitchen before she turned it back to Evie. “Did she consider an abortion, or adoption?”

Evie nodded and leaned down to pick her cup up. “She did. But Evie’s parents are super conservative. If she’d had an abortion, they would have stopped paying for her schooling. When they found out she was pregnant, they wanted her to marry the asshole. And adoption wasn’t an option. The jerk who knocked her up wouldn’t sign the papers that the agency she found requires the father to sign. So she decided to keep it. At first, we were only going to help her raise her baby. Then Cassy found out that she was pregnant too, and everything sort of fell together. We’re all we have now. Our parents don’t understand why we’re doing this and everyone else thinks we’re crazy. We just want to raise our kids together so that they never have to feel as abandoned as Lara and Cassy did.”

Veronica sat out on the deck for several minutes after Evie had left, just thinking about what she’d said. Being in Lara’s situation was something Veronica couldn’t really imagine. Her dad had always been supportive of her decisions, whatever they were, and he’d taught her to be careful with whatever she was doing. Being pregnant in college, it had never even crossed her mind. Sure, she’d thought about kids, but that had always been way in the future, after she’d finished school, and settled down with one guy. It was something that was a long way off, not right here in the moment.

A hand on her shoulder broke Veronica out of her thoughts and she looked up, surprised, into the face of one Logan Echolls. “I don’t suppose you’re here for the sex with willing women who want kids that you don’t have to raise. What are you doing here, Veronica?”

Standing up, she pushed her hair behind her ear and glared up at him. “I could ask you the same thing. Why are you at Stanford, Logan? This isn’t exactly your usual haunting ground. There aren’t any bleach blonde bimbos on surfboards or cantina waitresses carrying around drinks with those stupid little umbrellas.”

“Ah yes, those umbrellas really do make everything just right.” Logan let go of her shoulder and put his hands in his back pockets, leaning back and shrugging. “I overheard Mac and Wallace talking about you and I thought I’d come up and visit. I asked your RA where you were and ended up here. You wanna get out of here? Maybe go to my hotel room and talk?”

The underlying _I want you, I miss you_ , _let's have sex_  should have pushed Veronica to ignore his offer. It should have had her pulling her taser out of her bag and running back to her dorm room. Instead, she nodded and shouldered her bag, taking a deep breath. Even as she said the words that doomed her, she couldn’t actually bring herself to regret them.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

* * *

  ****

It was frightening, how easy it was to fall back into this, to let Logan wrap his arms around her and lift her up, pressing her against his car. It shouldn’t still be like this, not after everything that had been said the last time they were together. They shouldn’t be battling for dominance in a kiss that should never have taken place. The small part of Veronica’s brain that was fighting this- that was pushing away from the pleasure- reminded her of where he’d found her, of how they’d ended. Unfortunately, that part of her brain was so very easy to ignore with Logan’s heavy weight pushed up against hers. She could hear him pulling the keys out of his pocket, feel him working to unlock the door without stopping their kiss. The minute the door was unlocked and open, she should have pushed him away, should have told him to take her back to the dorm so that she could forget this ever happened. Instead, she slid into the car and waited as Logan walked around to the driver’s side, pulling her hand into his lap as he started the engine and pulled into traffic.

They didn’t talk on the walk to the hotel. It left plenty of time for Veronica to think, to reason with herself. She knew she should say something, should tell him that this wasn’t happening, that all they were going to do was talk. She also knew that she wasn’t going to do that. This was going to happen, the way it always seemed to, because there was something about Logan, something about Logan and Veronica, that made it impossible to avoid. _This is the last time, I swear it is. One last roll in the hay and then I’m walking away from him forever_. Veronica promised herself that she’d do whatever it took to stay away after this, even as she slipped out of the car and followed Logan through the hotel lobby.

The minute the elevator doors closed behind them, Logan was in her space again, hot breath against her neck, hands pulling at her dress. She wasn’t entirely sure how she managed to keep her clothes intact until they reached his room, but somehow she did. The click of the door behind them was barely heard between her breathy gasps and his moans. When Logan led her to the bed and pushed her down onto it, she closed her eyes and let her mind shut off. She could deal with the consequences afterwards, the next morning. For now, she was going to live in the moment and have one last hoorah with Logan before she said goodbye for good. Veronica barely registered the sound of a condom wrapper being opened before she lost herself to the movements and feelings of being with Logan again.

Afterward, curled up on her side against him, she promised herself that she would leave first thing in the morning. She would leave without a goodbye note, walk away. She had Stanford now, finals were almost upon her, then her summer internship with a law firm in LA. Those were what mattered. This, Logan, it was in her past. Veronica fell asleep focused on that thought. When she dreamed, it was of a life that no longer had Logan Echolls in it, a life of stability and peace.

* * *

 

When Veronica woke up the next morning, the bed was empty and there was no sign of Logan anywhere in the room. Her dress and bag were both on the floor, thrown there in the midst of their hurry last night, but any sign of Logan being there were gone. There weren’t even any stray socks, or a note. Frowning, Veronica sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet with her. She reached for her phone, which Logan must have put on the side table before he left, intending to call him and ask where the hell he’d gone to. As she moved, the condom wrapper from last night fell from the folds of the sheet and Veronica picked it up, rubbing it in her fingers for a second before frowning and pulling it closer to investigate.

There were holes punched in the condom wrapper. Veronica dropped it and scrambled to the other side of the bed, grabbing the trash can and pulling it up next to her. She reached in and grabbed the condom with a faint look of disgust on her face, a look that changed to horror when she saw the proof that there were holes in the condom. Dropping it, Veronica lurched off the bed and ran to the bathroom, barely making it to the toilet fast enough before she threw up, everything she’d eaten the day before leaving her. Once her heaves were all dry, she stood up and wiped her face, rinsing her mouth out and taking a few deep breaths.

“Think, Veronica. You need to get out of here. Get dressed.” Muttering softly to herself, she headed back into the main room, pulling her dress on with shaking hands. She retrieved her underwear from under the duvet and grabbed her phone, picking it up and dialing the first number she could think of. As it rang, she moved as far from the bed as she could, barely even glancing at it. If she had to look at the bed again, she’d start hyperventilating, she just knew it. Hearing the voice on the other end of the line, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“V? ¿Qué pasa?” Weevil sounded like he’d just woken up, voice gruff and gravely. The image of a bleary-eyed Weevil rolling over to answer his phone had Veronica giving a broken laugh and a wavering smile. She clutched her phone closer to her ear, leaning into it, almost pretending that he was right there with her, not hundreds of miles away.

“I need a favor.” She was proud that she’d managed to keep the tears out of her voice, even though she could feel them threatening at the back of her eyes. “Can you come get me?”

“From Stanford?” Veronica could hear him sitting up and rummaging around, probably looking for clothes to wear. “Yeah. I’ll be there in a few hours. Just hold on, okay? I’ll be on the road in twenty minutes, promise.”

Breathing her thanks out, Veronica hung up the phone and grabbed her bag, fleeing the hotel room. She hadn’t thought to grab extra cash the night before, so she wouldn’t be able to call a cab. Settling in for the long walk back to Stanford, Veronica pushed all thoughts of what had happened to the back of her mind. She could focus on that later. Right now, she neede to get back to her dorm room, pack a bag, and find her Plan B. The implications of what Logan did could be dealt with later, once she was feeling more steady, more herself.

It took an hour for Veronica to get back to her dorm room and find her Plan B. Once she’d swallowed the pill, she took a deep breath and relaxed minutely. Her biggest problem had been taken care of. She could focus on other things now. Grabbing a change of clothes and her toiletries bag, Veronica headed to the communal bathroom, she needed a shower to wash the past 24 hours off of her body. While she was washing her hair, Veronica mentally composed an email to her professors. She was going to need some time away to regroup. With Spring Break just a week away, she could take the week before off and go home, find her center of gravity again. Once she’d washed herself twice, Veronica turned the shower off and hurried to dress and return to her dorm room.

By the time she’d packed a bag for the next few weeks and emailed her professors an explanation of her absence and her assignments, Veronica had managed to calm down enough that her hands weren’t shaking anymore. It had only been five hours since she’d first called Weevil, but she was hardly surprised to hear his voice as he knocked on her door. When she opened it and he pushed in, she smiled, settling back down on the edge of her bed.

“What happened, chica? You calling me up out of the blue, must be something big.” Weevil grabbed the desk chair and turned it around, straddling it as he looked at her. “You need something from me, or were you just lonely? These rich Stanford boys probably don’t know how to treat a woman.”

Veronica laughed at that, gesturing towards her bag. “I’m coming home for Spring Break. I probably shouldn’t drive right now, so I called you. I just,” she stopped and ran a hand through her hair, “Something happened and I need the time to work my way through it.”

“And you called me so we could gossip and paint each other’s nails?” Despite the question, she could hear the worry in his voice and see it in his eyes. Taking in her appearance, Weevil nodded and stood up, grabbing her bag. “Alright. I’ll take you back to Neptune. But first, we’re stopping for lunch and you’re gonna talk.”

Sighing in relief, Veronica nodded and grabbed her phone and keys, following Weevil to his bike. Climbing on behind him, her bag behind her, Veronica let herself sag against his back, her arms around his waist. This was why she’d called Weevil. He wouldn’t let her sink down into a depression, wouldn’t let her get caught up in Logan again. Weevil would keep her sane, he always had. Resting her head against his shoulder blade, she closed her eyes and let the sound of the motorcycle roar soothe her nerves.

* * *

 


	3. The Knight of this Fairy Tale

Hunched over a plate of fries in a greasy spoon somewhere between campus and the interstate, Veronica wasn’t quite sure how to approach the subject of her reason for calling Weevil. How exactly did she bring up the tumultuous subject of her ex-boyfriend with one of the people who hated him most in the world? Sure, she and Weevil had talked about Logan before. They’d fought about him, mocked him, and Weevil had expressed his feelings about the entire subject quite vehemently. This was different, though. Before, Veronica had still been holding on to that ‘what if’ that had brought her back to Logan so many times. She’d been convinced that they could make it work, that just because their flings tended to end in volatile manners, it didn’t mean that they were doomed to never work out. She’d wanted to make it work. Things had been different when she left Neptune, and Weevil, more than anybody else, knew exactly what had been going through her mind. They had spent hours on Dog Beach, talking about Logan, about Veronica’s relationship with Logan, about how Veronica knew that it was over, that Logan would never be who she wanted him to be and she was done waiting for him. When she’d left for Stanford, Veronica had finally accepted that it would never happen, that she and Logan Echolls were not destined to have an epic love story that ended up on the cover of People magazine. Even last night, as she’d followed him to his hotel room, Veronica had known that it was just sex, it meant nothing to her. It wasn’t until she’d seen the dripping condom, almost empty, that she’d even considered the possibility of it being more than sex to Logan. If she hadn’t been talking to Evie about the pregnancy pact the night before, she wouldn’t have even thought to check the condom. Poking holes in a condom wasn’t Logan’s thing, after all. He’d never done anything like that before, and Veronica had never had reason to suspect that he ever would, especially with her. For Logan to have done something so out of character, something had to be going on, something serious. Right now, Veronica couldn’t focus on that. She had her own issues to deal with. Heaving a sigh, Veronica picked up a ketchup soaked fry and started to speak.

“I had sex with Logan last night.” She glanced up through her bangs, noting the expectant, patient look on Weevil’s face. Two years ago he would have immediately questioned her on that statement. It was a testament to how much he’d changed, how their friendship had evolved that he didn’t even raise an eyebrow. He’d gone from being an acquaintance who she needed for favors to being the only person who really understood her, who understood why she could never just let things be. Weevil was something more than a friend, something Veronica hadn’t really thought about. “It honestly meant nothing to me. It was sex. He found me at this sorority party that I went to for my Abnormal Psychology paper. I was talking to one of the girls there about something that happened to one of the other girls, and then all of a sudden, Logan is there, talking about how he heard Mac and Wallace talking about me and how he decided to come up and visit.” Dropping the fry, she brushed the hair out of her face. “I know it was stupid. I knew it was stupid when I decided I was going to do it. I just,” she shrugged, “At the time, I didn’t care.”

“If it was just sex, why did you call me to come get you? Usually, you call me to come get you, Echolls has done some stupid stuff. What aren’t you saying?” Weevil set his burger down and leaned back, taking a good look at Veronica as he threw his arm across the empty chair next to him. “Excuse me if I think there’s more going on. Now, what made you call me?” Even without looking back up from her plate, Veronica knew that Weevil was worried about her. Years of dealing with her Logan drama had taught him that she only really asked for help if she was on the verge of breaking down. “What’d rich boy do?”

Now was the moment she had dreaded. Sure, for Veronica, all of the emotions that had surrounded her torrid love affair with Logan were long gone, but the fact that Logan had gone to the lengths he had, had knowingly done something that could have left her pregnant, it spoke volumes on what remained of his emotions. Weevil had been there for all of the drama in high school, in the last year at Hearst. He knew that the chances of Veronica feeling anything for Logan increased when Logan showed signs of caring for her. He knew how susceptible she was to the idea that she could change Logan, could make him a better person. If he thought for a second that she was going to do that again, Veronica could kiss any of her newfound freedom from her friends’ and father’s constant worrying goodbye. All Weevil would have to do is breathe one single word to her father and everyone she knew would be on the lookout. Whatever Veronica told him, she had to be careful to make sure he knew that she wasn’t going to go running back into Logan Echolls’ arms. Again. Looking up, Veronica pushed her plate away and took a deep breath. Determined, she launched into her explanation.

“My Abnormal Psychology paper is on the effects of pregnancy pacts on the women making them and the children raised in that situation. There was a rumor going around on campus that one of the sororities had a pregnancy pact, so I was looking into it.” She ignored the glare Weevil sent her. When she’d left Neptune she had promised to leave the investigating behind her. Looking into the pregnancy pact was the exact opposite of leaving investigating behind her. “I was at a party at Theta house when I ran into Logan. One of the pregnant girls had just told me about how their pact started, how one of their friends had been tricked by a frat boy who had poked holes in the condom he used. I didn’t think Logan had been close by when I was talking to her. He didn’t approach me until after she’d been gone for a few minutes. This morning, though,” she glanced down at the table, losing some of her resolve.” This morning, I found the condom wrapper and there were holes in it, so I checked the condom and there were holes in it too. I just needed to get out of there and refocus myself.” Meeting Weevil’s eyes, Veronica smiled sadly. “Logan’s in a bad place. He’s probably always been in a bad place. I know that. I don’t need to be in that place with him. Honestly, I needed to get out of there, to focus on myself, remind myself of how far I’ve come. So I called you. I don’t think I would’ve been able to make the drive myself.”

Weevil stayed silent for a few minutes and Veronica could see the gears turning in his head as he took in everything she’d said. Finally, he nodded and picked his burger back up, taking a bite before speaking. “So you didn’t need rescuing from Echolls? Alright, I can accept that. I take it that this is something you aren’t going to tell anyone else?” At her nod, he set his burger back down and leaned forward. “I’ll keep this to myself, V, but you have to stop doing this. Next time I have to come save your ass, it better be a real danger, not Logan fucking Echolls. That ship has sailed.”

“Oh trust me, that ship is never coming back.” Deciding that there was no chance of her finishing her fries, Veronica picked up her soda instead, toying with the straw as she collected her thoughts. When she felt like she knew what she wanted to say, she smiled and met Weevil’s eyes again. “Logan is high school drama. If you can turn yourself around and become a respectable private eye, I can move on from foolish high school relationships. The days of me pining after Logan are long gone. Now, if you’re done eating, can we get out of here? I’d like to avoid LA traffic if we can.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” Weevil threw his napkin down and stood up, pulling Veronica up to. “Come on, chica, I bet I can get you home before dinner, then you can explain to the Sheriff why you’re skipping out on school a week early.” He grinned as she groaned, leading her to his motorcycle and handing her the spare helmet. “Hold on, V, it’s gonna be a long ride.”

As Veronica settled behind him and slipped the helmet on, she smiled, leaning into his back. Just acknowledging that Logan was in the past, and meaning it, made her feel a hundred times better about herself. She felt lighter than she had when she’d left Neptune for Stanford. She felt lighter than she had in ages. Sitting on the back of Weevil’s bike, on her way home for a few weeks, she could focus on the future and herself, rather than Logan and the past.

 

* * *

“From now on, I’m walking everywhere. How on earth can you sit on that thing for hours without feeling like your legs are about to fall off?” Veronica grabbed on to Weevil’s arm as she climbed off the bike, clinging to him so she could get her balance back. When she felt like she could stand without collapsing on the pavement, she let go of his arm, straightening her shirt where it had ridden up on her stomach. At Weevil’s quiet chuckle, she glared at him, punching his arm half-heartedly. “Why are we at a bar? I thought you were just going to take me back to my dad’s. What’s up?”

“I promised a few people I’d meet them here, and they wanted me to bring you. You can buy me a drink, you owe me after all. I don’t go driving halfway across the state for just anybody.” Weevil put both helmets on the bike before proceeding Veronica into the bar, throwing her a cocky smile as he held the door open.

“And here I thought it would take dinner, some dancing, and a romantic walk on the beach to say thank you for getting me. You’re getting cheap in your old age, Navarro. If you’re not careful, people will take advantage of this knight in shining armor mentality you’ve got going on.” Veronica smirked and moved past him into the bar, recoiling slightly from the overstimulating noise.

“If you wanna go all out, please, do your best. I’d love to see Veronica Mars try and figure out what normal people do on dates. We don’t all date the richest people in Neptune after all.” Weevil smirked and led Veronica to a booth in the back of the room, pushing her into it gently.

“You mean we won’t be spending the night in the nicest room Neptune Grand has to offer? However would I manage to get by?” Holding her hand to her chest in mock offense, Veronica gasped, flipping her hair for effect. “I don’t know if this relationship is going to work out, hombre. I’ve got standards that must be met.”

“Relationship? What relationship would this be? Did you find someone you like at Stanford?” Veronica looked up, a smile breaking out on her face as Mac slid into the booth across from her. “Do tell me all about it. After you tell me why you’re here. Spring break is next week, remember? We talked about this. You, me, Palm Springs. Come on V. We had plans. What was so important that our carefully planned out spa trip was called off?”

Wallace sat down next to Mac, throwing his arm around her shoulders, just as a waitress came up to their table. After they’d placed the orders for their drinks, he zoned in on Veronica, concern lighting up his gaze. “Hey Veronica. What happened to never coming back to Neptune? I thought I’d see snow on the beach before I saw you here again. I was all set to drive seven hours any time I wanted to see you.”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Veronica laughed, leaning back and relaxing into the booth. “And no, Mac, I do not have a new relationship. I don’t think I will for a while. I just needed to come back for a while, refocus myself. I thought that coming down here instead of Palm Springs would help me, familiar surroundings and such. So, when did this happen?” She gestured towards the position the other two were in, raising an eyebrow as Mac cuddled closer to Wallace and smiled. “I’ve talked to both of you on the phone every day since I left and you didn’t think to tell me about this? What sort of best friends are you? This seems like far more important news than the fact that they got a new soda machine in the chem building.”

“Hey, that soda machine was a much needed change. Now I don’t have to drink boiling hot coke during my lectures.” Wallace pulled Mac closer, smiling like Veronica hadn’t seen him do in years. “Besides, we were going to tell you soon. It seemed more like an in-person talk than something you’d want to find out over the phone.”

“I suppose I can forgive you, if only because I don’t think I’ve ever seen Wallace look so embarrassed. Now, let’s get to these drinks. I’ll need it to face my dad.”

Mac stopped Veronica from picking up her drink, a serious look on her face. “Seriously, why are you back early. Something must have happened. The Veronica I know has done a lot of things, but leaving school a week early is not one of them. What happened?”

Veronica stared down at her beer for a minute before looking back up at Mac and smiling. “I did something stupid, and I needed the time to recover from it. I promise, I’ll tell you all about it later, but right now I can’t feel my thighs and I can’t even focus on my drink. Let me have some recovery time before you give me the third degree.”

“Alright, but tomorrow, you spill the beans.

“Scout’s honor.”

* * *

 

The next morning, Veronica woke up with a pounding headache as sunlight spilled across her face. She groaned and covered her eyes with her arm, rolling over on the couch she had fallen asleep on. After three hours of hanging out and drinking with Weevil, Mac, and Wallace, Mac had convinced Veronica to go home with her rather than waking her father up in the middle of the night. In hindsight, it was a brilliant plan. If Veronica had gone home as drunk as she was, her father would have panicked and she would never have heard the end of his complaints. Going home hungover was much better, at least a hangover could be passed off as a migraine. When she felt like she could open her eyes without burning out her retinas, Veronica pulled her arm away from her face and sat up, ignoring the tattoo beat in the back of her skull. Standing up, she made her way to the kitchen, clutching at the counter as the world tilted around her. She should have said no to tequila shots. Tequila had always taken its toll on her.

“That is the last time I let Wallace goad me on.” Grabbing a glass off the drying rack, Veronica filled it with water, straightening up and gulping it down in seconds. She filled it back up and sipped at the water slowly, sighing in relief as her throat stopped aching. The pain in her skull was still awful, but she could push past it. Finals had given her worse headaches, after all. Carrying her glass back to the couch, Veronica sat down and took a minute to look around Mac’s apartment. Her jacket was thrown over the back of a chair, her shoes kicked off next to it. Weevil must still have her bag on his bike, not entirely surprising. Weevil liked to make up reasons to bother her.

A groan from the hallway had Veronica smiling, looking up towards Mac’s door. When her friend came stumbling out of her room, one hand holding her head together, Veronica couldn’t help but chuckle quietly. “You look how I feel. Come sit with me and nurse our headaches.”

When Mac had settled down next to her and buried her head against Veronica’s shoulder, Veronica couldn’t help the happy feelings that coursed through her. This was exactly what she needed, time with her friends, with the people who knew her best. Mac moved slightly and Veronica pushed her thoughts aside, focusing on her friend. “Why did we go drinking? I have midterms to study for. Ugh, that was a horrible idea.”

Veronica laughed and stared out into the living room, wincing at the sunlight that was still burning her eyes. “Wallace challenged us and we had to defend our honor. Really, we should just blame him. If he hadn’t teased us, we wouldn’t have had nearly as much to drink. We should really learn not to listen to him.”

Mac nodded and stood up slowly, moving to the kitchen and filling a glass with water for herself. Opening a cupboard, she grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen before returning to the couch. “Here. We both need some of this. Then you can tell me why you came back to Neptune when I distinctly remember hearing you say that you would never ever return to this place?”

Veronica groaned and accepted the ibuprofen, downing three with her water. “You’re going to say ‘I told you so’ and you’re probably going to be very unimpressed with me.” Leaning against the back of the couch, she closed her eyes and took a minute to collect herself. “I slept with Logan. He showed up in Palo Alto, at a sorority party I was at. I don’t know why I did it, but I did.” She opened one eye and grimaced at the look on Mac’s face. “Remember the pregnancy pact? It starts with that.”

Mac motioned for Veronica to continue, settling in next to her. Sighing, Veronica rolled her eyes. “Alright, but this is kind of a long story.”


End file.
